The Night He Left
by greencyanide
Summary: What if Scarlett got Rhett back just the night he left? What if Scarlett didn't put it off 'till tomorrow? One shot. Complete.


**AUTHOR'S NOTE: What if Scarlett got Rhett back just the night he left? What if Scarlett didn't put it off 'till tomorrow'? Do we really believe Rhett could be so heartless to abandon Scarlett for years on end? One shot. Please review. Thank you**

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Scarlett sat at the bottom of the staircase, choking on her tears.

_Rhett said he is in love with me, was it really possible he's no longer so? No, I won't think about Rhett now. I'll think about it tomorrow. I will think about getting him back tomorrow...I will..._

Scarlett jerked up at the thought. Her mind snapped. Whenever Scarlett had thought about something terrifying, she had decided to put the thought off till 'tomorrow', when she might forget about it, or its importance might fade. But for the first time in her life, she didn't want to forget it. No, she wouldn't wait till tomorrow. She wouldn't wait for it to lose its importance. She would face up to it; take her fate in her own hands. Scarlett hurried into her room to gather up a cloak, and dashed out of her house, barely locking the door on her way out.

As Scarlett climbed on her buggy, a tumult of thoughts throbbed in her head. She organized them one by one. First, she'll have to find Rhett. _Where did he say he was going? Charleston, was it? Well, there is a train for Charleston tomorrow-early morning. He must be in the Farrington Inn, near the railway station if he wants to catch it first thing in the morning._

People stared at her as she raced past the bazaar. _They are probably thinking it's insolent of me to ride across the city at this hour of the evening alone. Well, they'll always say something about me. And, I don't care what they think. _

Scarlett was no longer the belle of Clayton County. Scarlett was no longer the girl with head full of dreams of Ashley.

She was Scarlett O'Hara Butler, and she had no intention of letting the love of her life escape. She wouldn't see this happiness slip through her fingers.

Scarlett pounded on the bell at the reception of the Farrington Inn. The manager was sleeping on his chair, and he jumped up at the disturbance. Then he rubbed his eyes to see a lady at his inn, in so late an hour.

"Has a Mr. Butler checked in here?" Scarlett cried impatiently.

The manager came back to his senses, and mumbled a reply, clumsily opening his register. "Eh, yes, Mr. Rhett Butler checked in this evening. He's in room 7 on the second floor. May I know-"

But before he could finish Scarlet had bolted for the stairs, and had vanished on top of it by the time he framed his question. He scratched his head, and wondered if he had really misjudged the woman to be a lady. Oh well, he shrugged, he'd just charge the man if he wanted an extra plate of food for her.

Scarlett wiped her face on the handkerchief and knocked on the door of room number 7. No one answered. She knocked again. This time a heavy voice floated across from the other side.

"What is it? I thought I said, I didn't want to be disturbed!" Rhett's voice made her insides shrivel up in pain, but Scarlett braced herself. She wouldn't go without a fight tonight, and fight she will till she could no longer breathe.

"Open the door, Rhett." Scarlett couldn't believe how calm she sounded.

There was a tentative pause before the door creaked open and Scarlett's heart thumped when she saw Rhett's grave face. His voice was expressionless when he told, "I thought we had explained ourselves quite clearly earlier this evening."

"No, I haven't come to explain, I am not very good at that. I want to-"

"Doesn't it ever occur to you, I don't care what you want anymore, Scarlett? I am respectfully asking you to leave, and spare me another melodrama."

At this, something hot bubbled up in her blood, something so bitter, so poisonous, she thought for an instant it would burn through her skin. But she channeled her anger to give her strength, with which she pushed past Rhett into the room and slammed the door shut.

Rhett scowled. "If you think you will barge into my room, and try to restore my faith you are very wrong."

Suddenly, Scarlett felt very weak. She tried to hold back her tears and with slightly shaking voice said "Rhett, I know I did everything wrong. I always have. I have never given a thought to what people think, but I was a fool, Rhett."

"Save it for the purgatory, my pet."

"Please don't joke like that. Rhett you always understand what I think, even when I try my best to hide it from you. But now when I am most honestly baring my thoughts, you refuse to see it!"

"It's not what you think, Scarlett. I just don't care any more. I don't know how many times I have said this, but since you are not letting its meaning sink into that stubborn little mind of yours, may Lord help you, I can't do anything about it."

"I know you care, you are just too proud to admit it. Why can't you trust me and let us start afresh? We can have all the happiness we want and then some."

Rhett laughed coldly." You are still the child, aren't you, Scarlett? You think it's so easy just wake up one morning and say 'Let's be happy' and happiness comes crawling through the door?"

"I think if two people have what they want, happiness follows"

"And you think I still want you? I am tired, Scarlett. I feel my age upon me suddenly. I don't bear any vehemence against you and I could only wish you well for your life." Rhett's cold eyes were holding Scarlett's. For a moment, Scarlett saw pain in them. As if he was suffering as much as her to banish her, to banish their life together. But the moment passed and it was the cold stare again.

Scarlett let out a cry of anguish, a feral cry of an angry, caged and cornered animal. Rhett stepped back, and when he saw Scarlett it was all he could do to stop himself from reaching out to hold her.

Heavy tears were rolling down Scarlett's cheek, but when she spoke, her voice was stern, too stern.

"You think I want whatever I can't get, don't you Rhett? Scarlett frets like a child for the star. She can never love anyone, because like a child, her love follows the basic needs of life. Scarlett, the flirtatious country girl, who never grew up, who never stopped from making the greatest follies just because she couldn't have what she wanted. Did it ever occur to you, Rhett that no one suffered for my mistakes more than I? I was a fool, but Ashley knew all along what he felt about me, rather what he did _not _feel about me. But Ashley got a doting wife and I cringed in unhappy marriages. What did I get, Rhett? I got my dreams ripped from me. I got buried in widowhood; when all I wanted was to dance a little, have a little fun at parties. Don't you think I feel my heart rot when I think what wrong I did to Charles and Frank? Do you think I feel very cheerful when I think how terribly unfair I have been to Melanie, the only person who selflessly cared about me? Whom have I got Rhett? I don't have my mother, or father, my sister hates me and the whole of Atlanta thinks I am a manipulating witch. I can pretend I don't care a hang who likes me or not, but Rhett you know what it is like - to be unwelcome everywhere you go, to have no one to turn to. But you are a man, Rhett. You can be a brigand, turn around and sneer at them. You can gamble on boats and live as happy as a lark, but I can't. I have to stay in the middle of it all, see how blatantly people resent me, how everyone is rebuilding their lives, while I sit under a pile of grief I do not feel. You can go to Charleston and call someone 'Mother', and I can cry myself to sleep hoping to have a happy dream about Mother." Scarlett couldn't go on. She gasped for breath, and clutched her throat. Rhett walked over to her to comfort her, but she sobbed away from him.

Suddenly Scarlett walked up to Rhett and clutched his lapels " I am begging you, Rhett. Don't I deserve some happiness Rhett?"

Rhett looked into her eyes, as if a new feeling dawning in him. He was looking for something phony about what she had said, but he was only blazed by the flaming passion that seemed to engulf her, and leave her too weak to stand. He averted his eyes, unable to stand the torture in Scarlett's eyes.

Scarlett started shaking, and Rhett felt alarmed - Was she going to double over and faint? But no. Scarlett was laughing. What a horrid, jagged laughter it was. Rhett shivered, the raucous laughter was the most frightening sound he had ever heard. When Scarlett looked up at him, here face was taut with ache, but her eyes were merciless.

She spoke in words breaking through her barbarous laughter. "Isn't life so fair? Tell me Rhett, why do I always end up laying my heart out for men who stamp on it, not caring to look behind to see the bloodied mess they made? So beneath all that sarcasm for the 'wooden-headed gentleman', you are no better than him, are you? All that passionate love is all but a delusion you have successfully entrapped me in."

The words shook Rhett like a blow in the face. Before she could realize what was happening, Rhett was pinning her to the wall, her hands cuffed in his, painfully above her head.

His voice was low, but shaking, burdened with a plethora of emotions. "Don't you dare question my love, you fool! Don't, even for a moment! I love you more fiercely than your fickle mind can handle." And just as swiftly, his lips were on hers, scorching them, but Scarlett couldn't get enough. She forced right in, as if a swallow quenching her thirst in the first rains with precious water after long drought. Rhett's hands snaked behind her, pulling her in against his body, with demanding will. They went on till they were both panting. Rhett nuzzled his face in her neck, in the tangle of her hair, her heart furiously beating under his ears. Scarlett ran her fingers through his hair, the smooth crisp mass felt like velvet beneath her fingers. Time itself, forgot its unerring virtue and stood still. Scarlett felt she could pass her lifetime, in Rhett's arms. It must have been aeons, before Rhett spoke, in a calm voice that pacified Scarlett's bristling nerves.

"Come with me Scarlett. Let's leave behind Atlanta. It never held charms for the likes of us. It's only perfect that you have grown to acknowledge that. We can go wherever we want to, no goddamned status quo to hold us down." Scarlett looked up in confusion at the word, and Rhett smiled at her. "I'll never let you do anything you don't like Scarlett."

Scarlett rested her head against his chest and luxuriant tears welled up in her eyes. They poured out and Rhett held her tighter and led her to the bed. Even the incommodious bed and the coarse sheet seemed like the best place in the world to be, to the amorous lovers as the rapturous night wore on.

Scarlett felt she would burst at the seams with happiness as the first rays of the dawn streamed in through the moth-eaten curtains. She quietly curled up closer to Rhett, thinking he was still asleep, only to feel his body reverberate with muted laughter.

"Good morning, Mrs. Butler. Today is the first day of the rest of your life."


End file.
